if you miss a program go to itunes every monday and you can get the free audio pod cast or buy the video version. join us sunday morning, 11:00 a.m. eastern. "state of the union with candy crawley begins now." the last debate amidst tight poll s, testy candidates and trouble across the globe. today, as obama and romney prepare to debate the world, who has the strongest hand? we'll ask former ambassador to the united nations bill richardson. and former speaker of the house newt gingrich. >> hello, virginia. >> what a great virginia welcome. >> then battleground virginia. with the state's democratic senator mark warner and former congressman republican tom davis and courtship of the american woman. gender politics with a top republican woman in congress kathy mcmorris rogers.

dman bash and dan balz. i'm candy crawley and this is the state of the union. >> al qaeda is on the path to defeat and osama bin laden is dead. >> up against criticism the president's approach has been too hard on friends and too conciliatory to enemy sfwls the president's policies throughout the middle east began with an apology tour. >> tomorrow's debate the last before the election will focus solely on foreign policy. it's certain to include the specific, including the who knew what when questions surrounding the murders of four americans in benghazi to the big picture debate over america's role in the village. joining me to the debate is bill richardson and newt gingrich. i want to get to that.

but first i want to get just your remembrances of senator george mcgovern who died today at the age of 90. in some ways he played a pivotal role in the democratic candidate in '72 in the midst of a war. >> he was a great statesman. i knew him quite well and i'm very saddened. i think he will be remembered obviously for his stance in the war in vietnam, for his bomber missions, but also for his christians on agriculture, on hunger. and then the democratic party, he transformed the party, the primary system, getting minorities involved. he was a giant figure and a classy, good, good guy. >> you probably had nothing in common with senator mcgovern politically. >> george was a complicated person. he served as a bomber pilot in world war ii. he was not a pass vis. i remember being with him at the u.s. embassy in rome for dinner

one night and talking about he and goldwater. he said one thing about losing so badly is you don't have regrets. he ran a small business, bed and breakfast and wrote a great a that he heaped up on small business through the regulations he sponsored. a great guy. >> i think he was far more complicated than just dove would lead you to believe as is the case with most everybody we talk about. far more complicated. i want to move on to foreign policy and this big and final debate and ask you, one of the questions i hear all the time, is there a fundamental difference between these two men that you have di certained over the totality of foreign policy? >> there is a big difference. i'm concerned about governor romney becoming commander in chief. i told newt when we served in the house together he knew

foreign policy and he rose above partisanship on issues like the peso crisis, nafta. we worked together. governor romney just seems to be bluster, blunder, cowboy on foreign policy and i'm troubled at this time when we had the benghazi crisis he is trying to make political gain and i'm troubled in the house of representatives with the house oversight committee releasing information about some libyan nationals that we are exposing to danger. i think the president has a strong record in foreign policy. he went after bin laden. he decimated al qaeda. he's restored our alliances. i think he's going to be hardly an advantage when it comes to foreign policy. >> mr. speaker, you are

unusually quiet. >> i respect him. congressman, embassy, secretary of energy. but we obviously have a very different view of this. first of all, governor romney lived overseas several years as a missionary, worked in international business for many years, as the governor of massachusetts dealt with international relations as a governor and dealt with the entire world in helping rebuild the winter olympics and had virtually every count in the world in that instance. he is a man that understands the world. the bigger difference is a different between self deception and realism. if you look at the obama approach in the middle east it is all falling apart. look at libya, where you have a country where even today we are in arguments over benghazi which ought to leave every person to worry about our intelligence capabilities. if we can't figure out what wenting on in a relatively open

city, in a country we helped liberate, why do we think we know what is going on with the iranian nuclear program? and i think you can go country by country and see the fraying at the edges of the obama policy and the fact apologizing to islam and worrying about this -- and mentioning, for example, the stupid film six times in the united nations speech is not a strategy that is getting us anywhere in the region. >> i want to inform the audience here, this is our latest pew research center poll. the question is who could do a better job making wise foreign policy decisions and it shows september to october the president has dropped six points in this. the former governor has picked up five points. what's happened in that time has been benghazi. so the answer to the question, if we don't know what happened in a relatively open city, that by the way the united states least helped to keep free, how can we possibly stake what the

u.s. does next on what we think is happening in iran with the building of a nuclear weapon? first, candy, when i was the u.n. embassy, i get a daily intelligence assessment but those intelligence assessments change with more information coming in. but when the president found out about what happened in benghazi, the next day he called it an act of terror twice in washington and in nevada. he ordered an investigation. he increased embassy security and he said he was going to bring those individuals responsible to justice. now, our libya policy worked. nato came in. we assisted nato. we came in on humanitarian grounds. i think have been on the right side -- >> let me ask you, do you know what happened in benghazi? >> i've seen the press reports. i'm not privy to what's happened. but i do think it is a strong al

qaeda effort. >> more than a month later -- >> we are now toldle that ambassador rice was, in fact, acting on what the intelligence community supposedly told her on sunday after this attack. what they told her on sunday f that is correct, was factually false. we still don't know in detail. we don't know who the people in charge were. you have over 100 people in a five-hour running battle. this is not a temporary mob or a short-term thing. they now say at least four al qaeda members are involved. let me give you a bigger picture for a second. the way we handled libya as it collapsed, over 10,000 weapons moved in. the reason that is relevant, syria has one of the largest if not the largest chemical weapons stockpiles in the world. if that dictatorship falls in such a way that those chemical weapons get in to terrorist hands, we have an enormous threat everywhere in the civilized world in my judgment.

>> i want to play something that president obama said at tuesday night's debate. the question to him which never got answered, was whose decision was it not to beef up security after so many folks we are now learning through the cables to the state department had asked for it. this is part of what he had to say. >> the suggestion that anybody in my team or the secretary of state, u.n. ambassador, anyone on my team would play politics or mislead when we have lost four of our own, governor is offensive. >> first to you, mr. speaker, how does mitt romney avoid that sdmarch they are playing politics because you hear it on the campaign trail. this is politics, it is politics. >> it is offensive for the president of the united states

to prethaend being asked a serious question about a serious topic in a presidential campaign is some personality game. the fact is the president of the united states, he says he was responsibility. he was asked. he said hillary is not responsible. she works for me. i'm responsible. if he is responsible why -- this is his quote. he felt like the taliban was inside the state department. he faelt felt his major enemies were in the state department. this is the man in charge of security for the middle east who talked painfully about being turned down and told don't you even ask for security. you are not going to get it. >> candy, what troubles me is that governor romney, before we knew that four americans had died was already taking political pot shots over this incident. i think that is fundamentally wrong. foreign policy -- >> he was actually, in fact, responding to something that came out of the embassy in cairo. >> well, at the same time,

candy, 0 -- and then in subsequent debates. >> wait a second. this is a typical. >> no, no. >> >> romney was not responding to benghazi. romney was responding to the embassy in cairo apologizing over the movie at a time when -- >> nonetheless at a time when our people were attacked, he was -- he made several political statements that morning. i think that's what's wrong. what i want to stress, again, is that there's a difference between embassy security. diplomate security takes care of the ambassador. marines take care of the embassy. there was a statement that paul ryan made that confused the two. so it was trying to make political hay before the facts were in. >> i went friday night to see argo which is an interesting film about the rescue of six

americans from the embassy in iran. i was reminded it runs 444 days. should ronald reay that gan not have talked about it 444 days. the mess keeps involving. there continue to be dintss an you gave a good example. i don't care whether it is the diplomate security service or the marine corps they failed to respond and rejected demands they get help. the ambassador was personally worried not only about hoiz own life and violence and the obama administration did nothing. if that offends the president that is his problem and he ought to get over it. >> i felt like we have had a pre-debate debachlt thank you for coming here. thank you for being here. next up, this red state turned blue in 2008 and help put president obama in the white house. four years later it is up for fwrabs again. battleground virginia is next. s

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>> in less than three weeks, voters in ohio, florida and virginia will decide this incredibly important election, which begs the question, what are we doing here? [ laughter ] >> president obama joking thursday night at the alfred e. smith memorial dinner in new york. and virginia is a jump ball. joining me is mark warner and republican congressman tom davis. thank you, both. you have a barn burner in virginia this time. give me your best analyst look at the state of play right now. >> i'll start. i think romney's on an upward tra vek toir. we think he has passed it.

the rasmussen poll shows him up three. it is close but obama's turnout model will be down from 2008. the kids are not coming out for him like before. we think minority turnout will be slightly because you can never beat the first time and in northern virginia we will do better than last time. >> it is a battleground state and that means it will be close. polls showed the president up two. i think he will be successful. i think he has done a great job for veterans and i think he can pick up where we were four years ago against mccain and the split on women's vote in virginia is bigger than the national trend. last year the legislature controlled by the republicans made virginia the brunt of late-night jokes with the so-called invasive ultrasounds. most recently a week ago our state health director resigned instead of having restrictive abortion rights put in place. the virginia republican party is

not the tom davis virginia republican party and i think the women in virginia see that and unfortunately the romney/ryan campaign has adopted that out of the main stream approach. >> since the senator brought it up, we do have two ads that are playing now. i'm sure you have seen them several times. both from the romney campaign and the obama campaign, both on abortion. take a listen. >> those ads say mitt romney would ban all abortions and contraceptions seemed a bit extreme. so i looked in to it. turns out romney doesn't oppose contraception at all. in fact, he thinks abortion should be an option in cases of rape, incest or to save woman's life. >> delighted to sign the bill. >> trying to mislead us. that's wrong. but then all abortions? only if you vote for him. >> so, obviously, somebody thinks this is a great way to turn out female voters. >> well, it has worked for

democrats in virginia traditionally with doug wilder's election on that issue. romney wasn't anywhere near richmond when what mark talked about was going on. i add obama doesn't have the benefit of warner on the ticket with him. that could hurt him as well. when the democrats talk about it and they are behind. they hit me and john warner on the same issues and anyone with the label. it doesn't fit mitt romney. >> frankly it is still a conservative state in so many places and the abortion issue splits both ways. >> absolute sli splits both ways but virginia is a main stream state and virginians don't like either political party when they get too far off the main stream. the mitt romney that campaigned for republican nomination, was way out of the main stream. he's trying to -- it's getting close to halloween and he is trying to change clothes and get back to a moderate view. at the end of the day people are not going to respond to that and

on top of that -- tom is an expert on plil politics, virginia and elsewhere. but i think at the end of the day the ground game the president has built will make sure they come out. >> he congressman says the ground game is not as muscular four years ago and that the tum at this point seems to be governor romney. would you agree with that assessment? >> i would say this state has gotten closer as the election has gotten closer. >> going in to the last two with weeks you want to be the guy with momentum. >> we have twice the number of operation and i think the issue is women. i'm on the economic side. the romney numbers don't add up. $8 trillion in tax cuts or additional defense spending. mitt romney could eliminate capital gains distinction, the mortgage, charitable deduction and health care exclusion for anybody and it doesn't add up to

everybody. >> >> the numbers don't add up and mark knows that as well. >> there are two things you can pick up, one is -- is on the ballot as is gary johnson. so might that affect the outcome. >> a green candidate, too. >> and a green candidate as well. but virgil gude is likely to take votes away from romney and in a can close race does that worry you. >> he cuts more in to us than the other siechld he drives around in his truck. there are no goode signs to speak of. it is on the margin at this point and i think our lead will be enough to overcome that if we get our vote out. >> there is question number one on the ballot which is about imminent domain. it would eliminate instances where private property can be seized by the government for private use. might that drive out the

conservative vote it. >> hasn't gotten a lot of attention. i don't hear it talked about a lot. i think that virgil who is a democrat, independent, republican and now a constitutionalist in south side and southwest virginia i think he will draw votes away from romney. >> you think eminent domain splits. >> there's no money behind it, candy. if you are an incumbent and the challenger is getting traction, you get nervous. i run a lot of campaigns. i'd rather be romney than obama in virginia. >> i would take the fact virginia with 5.9 unemployment, and. >> republican governor. >> at the end of the day, the buck stops with the president, as people have always said. governor romney makes the thing the economy is not coming back. we have seen virginia's economy doing well. >> virginia's economy by and large is pretty good. that cuts for president obama. >> certainly good in northern virginia but you go to martinsville and other places it is hurting and the president

will pay a price i think. >> let me ask you about your senate race because it is a great one. this pits -- and i want to show our viewers the latest polling there from the latest poll. tim kaine 47%. george allen 46% he's the republican. does this race depend on the top of the ticket? >> you know, i think the top of the ticket will affect this race. i think at the end of the day, tim kaine who's a great friend of mine. i have known him 30-plus years. he was my lieutenant governor i think he will be successful. he lays out a more positive ability to come to washington and work with people like tom daviss and mark warners what who want to get stuff done after the election realize you have to check your republican and democrat hats. >> i want you to answer that question as well and i want to repeat something i found fascinating when you said i am shocked as i am going out and ringing doorbells on behalf of

republican candidates. people don't know the senate candidates despite their pedigree. these are two high-profile guys. what does it mean when it comes to the end result? >> i think the presidential race has sucked a lot of oxygen out this and northern virginia has a huge turnover. new people coming in all the time. the presidential race is a very important factor. it will dictate your turnout. if we have a 2008 turnout model it is over. democrats win. what we can see is they are dispir dispirited. republican turnout was down from 2008 to 2004. republicans are enthused. i haven't seen such enthusiasm in this state since ronald reagan. >> i need a one word answer to button this up. as the presidency goed goes in virginia, we or no. >> i think kaine wins in either

interest. coming up, prauchl and mitt romney ratcheting up the campaign to win over female voters. >> this president had failed america's women. >> in the 21st century a woman deserves equal pay for equal work. bob...

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time for a check of today's top stories. former senator and presidential candidate george mcgovern died this morning at the age of 90. mcgovern served in the senate from 1963 to 1981. he was the democratic presidential nominee in 1972 whose top issue was ending the vietnam war. he lost in a landslide to richard nixon. i spoke to senator mcgovern about that fateful campaign and we talked about his service in world war ii. >> i didn't go around tooting my horn about what a hero i was. i feel self conscious talking about my war record, but it was better than anybody else's who has run for president in the 20th century in terms of what i went through. so how we got to be known as the party that, the movement that is

weak on defense, weak on crime, weak on welfare sheets, irresponsible in handling money, but i'm ready to rest my case with history. >> mcgovern later served as the first u.n. global ambassador on hunger. president obama remembered him as a statesman of great conscience and conviction. his family said the senator died peacefully in a south dakota hospice. mitt romney's formal fund-raising season is over. the republican presidential nominee held his final fund-raiser last night. he raised $361 million this election cycle. he will continue to the accept donations through election davie ya his campaign website, by mail and text message. president obama will put what his campaign calls an all-nighter in battleground states this weekend. he will rally supporters an undecide voter in iowa,

colorado, nevada, florida, virginia and ohio during a whirlwind tour and stop off in chicago to vote, presumably for himself. he will be the first sitting president in history to cast an early ballot. jesse jackson jr. is speaking for the first time since taking medical leave in may. in a robo call he said he has been undergoing medical treatment to address serious health issues. jackson has been undergoing treatment at the mayo clinic for depression and under investigation for possible financial improprieties. up next, obama, romney and gender politics. jen's car wasn't handling well.

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joining me is donna bash. cathy mcmorris roger and dan balz. thank you all. i have a couple of polls i found interesting. to set the table for this conversation, this was a choice for president among likely female voters in swing states. president obama 49. mitt romney 48. that is a huge closing. what's happened here do you think? >> it is huge. in the last month, we have seen an 18-point shift. the gender gap neutralized. it's even which speaks positive to governor romney and his message, especially to women, on the economy, on jobs, on getting women back to work that this president's policies have failed. we have 5.5 million women unemployed. a record number living in poverty and on food stamps. the highest number in the last

20 years and governor romney is coming with a plan and a way to get them employed an able to take care of their children and families. >> that has been true -- what women are concerned about has been true through the whole thing. something has happened here. can you pinpoint -- is it a normal closing of the polls? a one-point advantage for the president at this stage of the game among women voters seems small. >> i think what we are seeing is the electoral and women are crystallizing what the election is about. i think when they look hard what they will see in president obama is what he has done with and for i women including supporting equal pay for equal work. making sure that mammograms, cervical exams and reproductive health care is taken care of. i think what you are seeing in pe polls is that women care about a lot of things, and that's really true.

at the end of the day they will look at president obama's record as a demonstration of what he will do in the future and they will look at mitt romney's words an understand that he really has not stood on the side of women. >> you two jump in on this. it seems to me that something fundamental happened in here with female voters. >> one thing about that poll is that it seemed to be an the one poll that really showed it neck and neck virtually with female voters. others showed different results. >> opposing. >> it speaks to the fact that women tend to be late deciders in election. not donnell they vote more than men, they register and vote more than men but tend to decide late and that is what pollsters and campaigns will tell you that's why you see every chance these candidates get and frankly sometimes over the top almost in a caricature kind of way appeal

to women. >> we found some stats about the number of abrgs ads that are running. in september, 14 races were running ads about abortion. right now 50 races include some sort of ad about abortion. so clearly there's a huge fight on for the female vote. what happened? >> there's no question there is a question there is a fight for it. i tend to agree with dana. that the poll that shows them essentially tied i think is probably an outliar. everything we know about the structure of how people in the country, president obama should and probably will win the vote of women. the question is by how much. >> margin matters. >> first debate helped governor romney on that score. he came across in a way that was more that appeal thank the ads attacking him. i know i sat in on a focus group done in fairfax county last month and you could tell the

advertising that's been going on by the obama campaign on women's issues has had an effect on women voters. they had taken it in. they said the economy was the biggistest issue but the ads on social issues was having an affect. it is moving to a closer race but i think we will see it move farther in the president's direction in terms of the female voters. >> i found this fascinating. this is the "usa today" gallup poll. what's the most important issue for women. most important issue abortion 39%. >> when you ask about women's issues but when you ask about issues in general, yes, abortion. women care about abortion. pro life and pro choice, women care about that issue. but i think women are not single-issue voters. you see where women are making their decision based upon the economy, on jobs, on the debt. they are concerned about the trillion dollar deficits run up

by this administration, what that means for our future, health care, very concerned about government's role when it comes to health care. we are seeing these polls close. you know what, i think they are seeing governor romney unfiltered in the debates and they are seeing him in his record when he comes to women. half of his cabinet were women. he had a lieutenant governor chief of staff. he has made a commitment to promoting women in his administration and i predict the republicans will win the women's vote in 2012. >> that is certainly not true. >> it did in 2010. >> president obama signed in to law the lily bled better fair pay act and to this day, mitt romney cannot say i support equal bay fpay for equal work a punted yet again. they see women care about their reproductive health care, not

just abortion but access to contraception, mammograms and cervical exams and what they see in president obama is a president who supported that access and what a they see in mitt romney is somebody who really has said, you know what, let your employers, let your bosses decide whether or not you have something as fundamental as contraception. 98% of women use contraception at some point in their lives. >> hold on the that thought. we will come right back. the candidates are heading in to the last two weeks of the campaign. more with our panel when we return. [ laughing ] [ laughing ] [ laughing ] ♪

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we are back with cnn correspondent dana bash correspondent dana bash, cathy mcmorris rogers and "washington post" political correspondent dan balz. i've got to at least move us a little bit toward the debate tomorrow night. foreign policy. this has not been a foreign policy election. certainly what's happened in libya has kind of put at least the headlines to the front. do you think tomorrow makes a difference and in what way? >> yes because any time that voters see the candidates on the same stage debating big issues, it matters. and my understanding from the

romney camp is that he is going to try to make this about an issue that women care about and all americans but particularly women, which is leadership. can this guy be the commander in chief. not so much a tit for tat like we saw in the last election. i was looking up rutgers has a women in politics program. i was looking on the website that women historically tend to be the ones that don't want to be in war. want to get the troops out. that's been at the forefront of a lot of elections in recent years but it's not right now. the question is what are women going to focus on, and i really do think it is the issue of leadership. >> i agree. and i think romney's going to do very well. last night he's presented the leadership that he would bring domestically on issues here at home and he's going to be able to present that same leadership on foreign policy. women care about leadership. they care about problem-solving, getting the job done, working across the aisle. and governor romney is someone who has proven that he's a leader, can get the job done, proven that he can work with

democrats. 87% of his legislature in massachusetts were democrats. i think he's going to do very well tomorrow night. >> congressman edwards, you can look at it and point a has to be osama bin laden. after that, how do you expect him to -- what do you expect him to bring to the table tomorrow night in terms of foreign policy as a way to show his leadership? >> i think president is definitely going to talk about his impressive record when it comes to foreign policy. when it comes to understanding and have a command of the state of the world and i think the president demonstrates that, i think he'll demonstrate that by obviously talking about osama bin laden. and i think it's important for our perspective. he'll talk about ending the war in iraq just like he promised, bringing to a close our engagement in afghanistan and what lies ahead.

the president has a really clear record on foreign policy, and i think he's going to demonstrate that in the debate tomorrow and i think the american people are going to look at that and say he is the kind of commander in chief that we want and he'll be able to focus, i think, on the importance of having a stable foreign policy so it allows us to get our economic house in order. as the president said, we're ending the war in afghanistan so we can focus on fixing the streets and roads and bridges in the united states. >> dan, when i hear about focusing on leadership and who can handle not just national but global affairs, it says to me tomorrow will be a more somber debate perhaps than a town hall, that we're going to look at two men who are now trying out for leader of the western world so we're looking for a different dynamic. >> i think for two reasons. one, they're going to be seated. they're not going to be standing and moving around the stage and circling one another like they did at your debate.

and the second is i think both of them and particularly governor romney were a little hot in that town hall debate. >> you think? >> and i think that they're both going to want to show a different demeanor in this. this election is about economic issues. though the conversation will be about foreign policy, i think one thing the voters will look at is who has the kind of strength, calmness, temperament to be the next president and i think that's where both will want to project the image that they are superior in that way. >> and we even got less than a minute so i'm going to give you the last word here. is there somebody who has the most to lose tomorrow night or is this just a matter of the two of them not messing up? >> i think that probably mitt romney has the most to lose because he's the challenger and the one that has to prove that he can be commander in chief.

this is his last chance to close the deal. yes, he's closed the gap in a lot of ways in a lot of swing states but he has to come back and not have binders of women moments where he is trying to make a point about for example he was very good with women. he appointed a lieutenant governor who was a female. massachusetts is not a historically female state, but the way he articulated it did not come over right >> dana bash, congresswoman rodgers and congresswoman and dan balz. thank you for watching as the campaign nears the final run we ask cnners what they won't miss. on the road. so, what do you think? [ engine revs ] i'll take it. [ male announcer ] it's chevy truck month. now during chevy truck month, get 0% apr financing for 60 months or trade up to get the 2012

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and finally, 16 days physical the election. if you think you have already heard it all, try hearing it all over and over again. we asked our cnn reporters and contributors, when all is said an done again and the last balloons fall and it's all but the voting, what won't they miss? one thing i will not miss when the campaign is over, besides the hotel rooms is the music

♪ only in america ♪ i was born free >> i love it but it has been played every mitt romney rally. >> i i'm ready to be foreign free of that tune. >> i know a lot of people say sick of hearing born free but for me it tells me it is time to start working now. >> mitt romney is to recite the lyrics of america the beautiful all the time. sometimes he would actually sing it ♪ oh, beautiful for spacious skies ♪ >> don't get me wrong. i love the song. this guy ray charles he used to sing it. ♪ oh beautiful for spacious skies ♪ >> mitt romney not so much. >> i'm sick of romney and obama have one thing to say about each other, he's a good father and good husband?

really, they both have good hair. how do you think that i feel. >> i love big bird and sesame, but this is something i don't want to hear anymore. >> someone is getting tough on big bird. >> references to big bird or sesame street. >> elmo has to watch out too. >> line i will be ready not to hear don't boo vote. >> don't boo, vote. >> it is a catch phrase that he audience joins in. when the president says don't boo they will respond with. >> vote. >> with halloween around the corner, i fear if a trick or tricker comes to my door and said boo, i might just say no, vote. >> thank you for watching state of the union. i'm sandy crawley in washington. head to cnn.com/sotuf analysis and extras. if you missed any part of today's show, find us on itunes. just search "state of the union." be sure to watch cnn at 7:00 p.m. tor